Bark: Gray, furrowed, broken into rough scales.
Twigs: Slender, grayish-green, smooth; leaf scars alternate, U-shaped, with 3 bundle traces.
Buds: Small, oblong, pale brown, up to one-sixth inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades very narrow, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, to 4 inches long, less than one-half inch broad, with widely spaced teeth along the edges, green and usually smooth on both surfaces when mature; leafstalks nearly absent.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate flowers borne on separate trees, minute, crowded into elongated catkins, appearing when the leaves are partly grown.
Fruit: Several flask-shaped, brownish, smooth or silky capsules up to one-eighth inch long, crowded in elongated clusters.
Wood: Light weight, soft, weak.
Use: Fuel.
Habitat: Along streams, often forming thickets.
Range: Quebec across to Alaska, south to Oklahoma and Arkansas, east to Maryland.